PORTSIDE

Water Problem Still Continues

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It seems as if the media has moved on from reporting on the Flint Michigan’s state of emergency for their water problem. The residents of Flint haven’t had clean water since April 24, 2014.

In 2014, the state of Michigan decided to switch Flint from Detroit drinking water to a new system. The new system wouldn’t be ready for 2 years. The switch was made to save money and it was to the Flint River water. This caused highly corrosive river water to flow through Flint’s lead pipes spreading lead and other dangerous metals into the water supply. This caused the tap water in many homes to become dangerous.

The water was brown and some people had rashes from bathing in it. Others became sick from drinking the water. Residents complained immediately. But instead of switching the water supply back, Michigan government officials added chlorine to the water supply and told people to boil their water.

The Michigan State government tried to cover up the severity of the issue by altering the reports, removing tests from two homes that would have shown toxic leaves of lead. They remade a report that made it appear Flint was passing the lead and copper rule with flying colors.

In October 2014, General Motors stopped using Flint River water at it’s engine plant because the company was seeing rust on vehicle parts. If water was corroding engine parts, imagine what it was doing to the people of Flint.

Twelve people have died in the city of Flint and their deaths were caused by the poisoned water.

Many activists of the situation have went to social media to have a voice on the issues they’re facing on the water situation arguing that clean water should be a human right.

It wasn’t until the start of 2016 that Flint declared in the state of emergency and began asking the federal government for with the water.

While citizens still suffer due to local government mistakes, Flint is actually trying to replace the pipes the city destroyed.

The city identified about 18,300 lead or galvanized steel water lines and has replaced nearly 7,000 of them.